Impressions of a theater community

"From Here to Kalamazoo"
Impressions of AACTFest 2005
by Mary Lou Martin

"There Really Is a Kalamazoo" was the city's slogan I read on t-shirts, coffee mugs, magnets and other such souvenirs at the recent AACTFest 2005 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. As I read those words I remembered, as a teen, hearing my mother say phrases like, "Your clothes are strode from here to Kalamazoo. Clean this up!" Now having been all the way to Kalamazoo from here, I understand just what my mom meant. It was a long way up there and my clothes must have covered a lot of territory in my bedroom.

My official AACT approved festival program stated; "AACT offers a wide range of opportunities to share experiences, problems, successes and love of theatre." What I observed among the 450+ community theater participants was exactly what was offered in the above statement. It is in essence a statement about community. In a community of any sort, people share experiences, live, play, and work together for a common interest. In this case the common interest is of course, live on-stage theatre.

I had the opportunity to participate in two classes having to do with musical theater performance. When I arrived alone in the small rehearsal hall, I felt somewhat alien to the other members of the group. However, within 10 minutes into the class, I was laughing and joining in with the presenter and the other participants seated next to me. We were becoming a community within ourselves. It is my belief that during the course of the four-day festival, similar scenarios were being played out within other workshops as well. We were different people with different occupations coming together to share a common interest.

Not only were the festival participants a community in Kalamazoo, but there exist a sense of community among theater people wherever one may travel. Take for example a story I heard at the Awards Gala and Dinner Dance the last evening of the festival. One of the festival chairmen related an event that happened last summer while he and his family were traveling on vacation through Colorado. The camping vehicle he was driving broke down in what he described as, "the middle of nowhere." Having no acquaintances within driving distance, he decided to call upon the local Community Theater for help. After phoning the theater and explaining his family's predicament, someone from the theater quickly came to his aide. That person helped him to find a place to fix his vehicle and stayed with his family offering food and a place to wait, until they could be on their way. Now that, my fellow thespians, is Community Theater at its best.

It was my impression from that man's story that even though we may be strangers in a strange land, so to speak, our Baytown Little Theater is really a community functioning within a larger community. As I watched the brilliant performances of actors from eleven community theaters across the U. S. and parts of Europe practice their craft, I felt a definite place in this community. Strangers to each other, people from all walks of life had something to discuss. Their love of theater had brought them together. Conversations were jovial, intellectual and captivating as peers discussed their art.

So when you speak of Community Theater, remember it spans much wider than our own Little Theater in Baytown. Our theater community goes from here to Kalamazoo and places beyond.